Rail monitor system expired

Federal agency says the loss of the program has no impact on security

By Eric Anderson

Updated 7:10 pm, Monday, May 19, 2014

Albany

A monitoring system designed to track rail cars carrying chlorine, ammonia or other hazardous gases was shut down late last year, even as local officials and the public were clamoring for more information about dangerous cargoes traveling through their communities.

More Information

"They blinded their own inspectors," RePass said, referring to the TSA personnel who he said had real-time access to the location of each tank car.

RePass said the system could have been extended to include the monitoring of tank cars carrying the highly flammable Bakken crude.

Trains carrying the crude from North Dakota have been involved in at least five explosive derailments, including one last summer in Quebec that killed 47 people.

Albany has become a major transshipment point for Bakken crude, and the tanker cars are a common sight in the median of Interstate 787 in downtown Albany.

The TSA, in a statement Monday afternoon, said the loss of the monitoring system had "no impact on rail transportation security."

"TSA is actively pursuing, through the standard government acquisition process, the necessary services in order to obtain this data," a spokeswoman said.

TSA regulations require shippers, receivers and railroads to provide information on hazardous shipments within 30 minutes of the agency's request.

Fred Millar, a rail safety consultant who has been active with the local group PAUSE, People of Albany United for Safe Energy, called the monitoring system "a phony measure to try to pretend something was being done" about what he said were essentially "weapons of mass destruction."

One goal of the system was to monitor the amount of time the shipments were in "high threat urban areas." But Millar said the hazardous cargoes needed to be rerouted around these areas, not through them.

A single breached tank car of chlorine, he said, could send out a deadly plume 40 miles long.

"What is important is the flow of information," Millar said. "We're dealing with an industry that is determined to keep the public at risk and keep those risks completely hidden."

But RePass said he'd rather have the hazardous chemicals "on the rails rather than the highways. These are chemicals that our society needs to function."